Dad and I were forced to pack our things and then be dragged out to a helicopter on the tower's landing roof. Well, we weren't dragged, but my feet slumped against the ground.
I kept looking back to see if Tony, Howie, or Pepper were following. None of them were in sight.
The propellers were blowing my hair around furiously, and making my split ends poke my eyes. A few of the soldiers stay behind as the ones who walk Dad and I guide us into the helicopter. My hair dangles in front of my eyes, as Dad leads me into the chopper. I turn to the back platform to see it closing, having Stark Tower disappear in front of my eyes.
We haven't taken off and I already feel unsafe.
As soldiers and Dad get situated with seating, I brush my hair out of my face and look around. However, I don't see much when two bodies take hold of me. I realize it's a hug, yet I'm not so sure who's hugging me or why I deserve it.
"You're okay! Oh thank God you're okay," I hear.
I pull away to look at the bodies hugging me.
Brown eyes, brown and black hair, warm smiles.
"Jax? Levi?"
"You've got a lot of explaining to do, but let's start with the fact that Tony Stark is your uncle!" Levi exclaims.
Dad takes notice of the boys, and is in the same state of shock as me.
"Bruce," Jax says, slightly staggering back.
Dad looks between the boys, lips pursed into a frown and brows furrowed.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Levi asks.
"The same reason why I didn't tell her," Dad nudges his head at me. "Couldn't risk hurting you guys."
The boys are silent for a moment. I can see the conflicting emotions behind Dad's eyes.
Levi scoffs with a smile, "Well, green looks good on you."
Suddenly, a smile crosses Dad's face as Levi laughs, prompting Dad to begin laughing as Jax and I try to hold back our own giggles.
"Sit down for take off," General Ross yells from the front. Dad and Levi sit in seats across from Jax and I.
"What are you guys doing here?" I ask. "And believe me, your moms will get a huge apology for this."
"Well," Jax buckles himself in his seat. "We're your guys' closest witnesses. They thought we'd know where you are. We had to sign a lot of papers."
"Don't worry," Levi says. "My mom's lips are sealed."
"Your parents know?" Dad asks, his fear returning.
"Yeah," Levi nods. "That old man told us all about you, Bruce."
"As weird as it sounds, the day at the park made a lot of sense as to why we realized you'd been acting strange." Jax explains.
I nod after buckling myself in. "He's my grandpa."
"Who?"
"General Ross," I say.
Levi, buckled in his seat, leans forward, not much though to look at Ross. He falls back and shakes his head. "I don't see it."
"Wait," Dad says. "How come you're on the helicopter?"
Levi looks to Jax, and I know that they know something I don't.
"Guys, I'm going to start being honest with how I feel starting right now. Tell us what's going on." I say, a little demanding.
"They're going to relocate you." Jax says. "We wanted to say goodbye."
I look across the way to Dad, who wears a face of disappointment.
"They said we can't keep in touch," Levi sighs. "Before Ross realized we didn't know where you were, we begged him to let us stay so we could say goodbye."
"All of New York knows what's happened." Jax says. "It's just a matter of time before the rest of the world knows."
The world. Now that's terrifying.
Looking back at Dad, I ask, "Where don you think they're taking us? If the whole world is about to know about Hulk, where are we going to go where no one can find us?"
Dad shrugs, "From my experience, no where that's like home."
And just like that, the apartment I grew up in vanishes from my mind. My old walls, bedding and personal items just disappear, just like I will soon. And then I'm back to being nobody important, except I have Dad with me this time. This time we're together, but now we're really nothing like family. We have no house, no privacy, nothing that makes us look normal.
Then again, we were never normal to begin with, just like Dad said.
From the corner of my eye I catch Ross staring at me, so I look at him. He looks away, and his words are back in my head. You look so much like your mother.
"Where are you taking us?" I shout to him.
Ross hangs tightly onto the side of the helicopter and shimmies his way down to the four of us. He's closest to me and Dad.
"We're relocating you to Arlington, Virginia. But first we're gonna drop these two back to their home." He says, pointing between Jax and Levi.
I look across to Dad, who doesn't look the least bit surprised as I do. When he catches my look, he shrugs.
"At least we're together this time." He says.
I nod and smile, then look to Jax and Levi, who force sad smiles on their faces. And suddenly my world is crumbling again, slowly. Painfully slow.
A little while later, it starts to get stuffy in the helicopter, so I unbuckle myself to take off my sweatshirt. As I do, I hear guns raising. I turn to see the armed men ready to shoot. I glare at them as I take my sweatshirt off. Once they realize this, they start to put their guns down.
As they do I look at the floor, my eyes travel up to Dad who's looking at the ground. He looks like he's in deep thought, distressed and anxious all at once. Maybe it was just me, but I could feel it all. I could feel his emotions.
Dad has his head in his hands and elbows propped on his knees. He lifts his head up to look at me and give as much energy as he can to smile and hold his hands out. I take Dad's hands into mine, and gently nudge my green converse on the toes of his shoes.
Dad looks at me with the brown eyes I once had, and smiles. I smile back. The boys are just as drained as we are, so we continue to sit in our own silence, listening to the propellers of the helicopter.
I don't want to look at them. I had to tell them so many lies that I now have a big ball of guilt in my chest, tightening every day.
Lies are what started this. Lies are what nearly broke my friendships. If I could restart my life I would.
Maybe my Mom would've stayed. Maybe Dad would've told me about the Hulk. Maybe Dad and Dalia would've ended up together and everyone would be happy. I'd still have Jax and Levi, sharing everything together like we used to. Everything could've been perfect.
Looking at my situation now, I realize that I didn't hold on any longer. I let everything fall apart. Thanks to me we're all recorded by the government, listed as problems and data based on inconveniences. All because of me.
And life will be different now. What's going to happen when Dad and I are in Virginia? Will we be experimented on? Will needles poke me, inject me with serums I don't know?
Will they cut me open? Are scars going to cover my body, and never fade away? Mark me until there's no more places to be scarred?
Or am I just going to be tucked away by the military in a base where no one will know that Dad and I even exist?
My thoughts are interrupted by a voice.
"Flying near Harlem sir," a soldier looking at a screen calls out to Ross.
I notice that Dad tenses up hearing this.
"You okay?" I ask.
He looks up at me, about to speak, until the helicopter jerks. I nearly fall out of my seat, forgetting to buckle myself back in, but Dad catches me. Jax and Levi reach to help me up.
"You okay?" Jax asks.
"Yeah," I nod. Just as Dad instructs Jax to help me back in my seat and be buckled, the helicopter jerks again, this time it's fast.
Dad catches me before I can fall. He begins to unbuckle himself as he shouts at the pilot, asking what's going on.
"General!" The soldier at the screens hollers. Ross moves around people to get to his man. I watch Ross and the soldier, both blocking the screens so I can't see anything.
Dad helps me back into my seat and starts looking at the buckles to hold me in.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Jax whispers to me. I look at him and shrug. I see Levi trying to lean to see through the men. General then stands up, and looks towards Dad and I.
"Banner, get over here," General demands. He looks a little pale in the face as he says this. Dad looks confused but stands up straighter and tells me to hang onto something for the time being. Once Dad moves towards General, I follow him.
As Dad stands in front of the screens, Ross takes notice of me.
"I didn't ask you to come," he says. "Go sit back down before you're hurt."
"You're relocating me and Dad, I think I deserve to know what's going on." I say with some stern attitude.
Dad is about to speak to me when a beeping noise comes from the screen. We all look to see a very blurred image, colors of green, brown and yellow.
When the picture comes into focus, a voice behind me asks, "What the heck is that?"
I turn around to see Levi and Jax now gathered with us. Looking back at the screen, I squint trying to understand what it is I'm looking at.
Honestly, the creature looked like a giant, muscular lizard, with skin like one too, It almost looks like he's got spikes or something sharp trailing down his back. In a way, it sort of looks like Hulk.
"What is that?" I ask, looking between Dad and Ross.
Dad looks incredibly worried, sick even as he shakes his head.
"No, no, no that's–that's not who we think it is, right?" Dad asks.
"It's who we think it is," General nods.
"No. . ." Dad whispers.
"I sent a team to go after him." General says, looking at Dad. "They didn't return."
Apparently, this thing seems like a big deal to the General, and especially Dad.
"What is that thing? Dad, what is that?" I ask, getting angry that no one is answering me.
"Abomination," Dad almost whispers.
"What's that?" I ask.
"Not what, who." General says to me.
"Who? Who is that?" I ask, I'm frustrated that I'm not getting any answers.
"Emil Blonsky." General says after a pause.
"Emil who?" I ask.
"He was sent to kill me years ago." Dad says. "He was a soldier, and then he underwent a different process like me to have his own Hulk. But he likes causing trouble, which is why we call him Abomination."
Dad is glaring at Ross, which means he had something to do with Abomination. My eyes turn back to the screen.
It was hard to fathom my own dad having an alter ego, but now knowing that there's someone like Dad who's an actual monster. Someone who wants to kill, who really wants to destroy.
"Call in Alpha and Omega team, get them on those streets." General shouts behind him to his men. "We had one weapon to actually stop him," General says, looking to Dad. "But that didn't work the last time, so I have to ask. . ." Ross sighs in disappointment, and perhaps even embarrassment. "Will you help us, Banner?"
Dad looks to me and stares at me for a few moments before looking back at Ross and nodding. "Keep Kerry and the boys safe."
Dad takes off his glasses and hands them to Ross. He then turns his head and calls out, "Open the platform!"
General nods at a soldier near the platform. The soldier pulls a lever, and a big noise groans as the platform opens.
"Dad, what are you doing?" I ask yelling over the wind. Dad walks passed everyone. Walks passed me, looking straight ahead into the dark sky.
My eyes grow wide realizing what he's doing as he steps out onto the platform. I do the one thing I know I shouldn't, and I follow him. I run through the helicopter and to the platform where I outstretch my arm to grab his shirt.
"Dad! Wait!" I cry out, grabbing him by the arm instead.
"Kerry!" Jax cries out, grabbing my other arm as he holds onto a soldier, who's holding onto a part of the helicopter inside.
Dad turns around, and seeing me makes his eyes grow to the size of soccer balls.
"Kerry!" He exclaims. He places his hands on my shoulders and pushes me back towards the helicopter, but I don't budge.
"I have to go with you!" I yell over the wind as it whips my hair all around my face.
"What? No!" Dad shouts, "Just stay up here—"
"But I have to make sure you don't hurt anybody!" I protest.
"Kerry," Dad says with a tired smile, "you've done your part, and now I need you to stay up here so I don't hurt you."
"But I'm still trying!" I shout, "I know I can make Hulk not kill anyone!"
Dad looks at me with sadness in his eyes. "Kerry, you can't fix what he's already labeled as. He's a monster, and I have to carry the burden of being unable to stop him. I'm a monster too."
"Maybe you see a monster, but I see a hero." I say, loud enough so everyone could hear. "You fall, I fall." I say.
"Kerry—"
"You fall, I fall, that's our deal!" I sob, my eyes filling up with tears. "I can't lose you again."
"I don't want to lose you either." Dad says with pursed lips, like he's holding back all of his emotions.
If this was the last time I was gonna see him be him, then I want to cherish it.
I hug him as tight as I can with my free arm. My face in his chest, and his big arms around me.
"I love you, Dad."
"I love you too." Dad says.
Then, I feel his arms leave me, his hands running over mine as he falls back off the platform. I watch him plummet to the earth, falling between the clouds in the night sky.
Falling, falling, and falling; down, down, down.
Then I heard a loud boom.
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